To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.
Day 2 of Capital Camp (Taken with instagram)
Living in the clouds
I recently picked up a Samsung Chromebook. I have been using it for around 2 weeks now and have been altering the way I work to follow a more “Cloudcentric” approach. To begin with I was excited to use this new shiny device. Once that feeling began to wear off I began to wonder if I could actually make the jump to working and playing completely online. There were a few things to consider. Being a web developer, the first thing on my mind was developing for the web using a device only made for the web. In conjunction with that need, I was also going to have to find a way to do some light graphics editing to create logos and icons. I also needed some basic productivity apps to keep up with other people at work and home. Last but not least, as far as entertainment goes, I have been using mostly web based apps for quite a while now and was not worried about that transition.
Falling Off The Bleeding Edge
This is a confession from a technology addict. I am a fish. Dangle the latest, greatest shiny in my face and I will bite. What happens when you bite too many times? Are you ahead of the curve, or beyond the practical?
I have realized that living at the forefront of technology is fun. There is always some new cool object or service to deconstruct or weigh against what you currently use. After you have been at it for awhile you meet people who are like minded. Next thing you know there are competitions on who can get signed up for the latest Google beta (whatever it might be). Personally I have signed up for just about anything that enters my inbox. I like to call it market research and as a web developer I need to be ahead of the game. After some period of time, I lost track of the fact it was “research” and began using what was new and exciting in leu of what was tried and true. A practical problem that I now cannot overcome is troubleshooting. It is too hard to decide if you are looking at a network issue, software issue, or hardware issue, or even some unholy combination of either when everything is “cutting edge”.
Bottom line, take a few steps back from the edge. Evaluate the service or product and make sure that it fills the need that you have. The last thing that we need in this world of information overload is to create new needs to be filled. Sure there is some level of coolness to having had a Twitter account since its dawn, but I tweeted twice before the thing blew up. Bleeding edge products and services need to be faster, smarter, and stronger that what is currently on the market and not just promise this at some future date.
